Xavier Robles de Medina
Goldsmiths MFA

In Bambi, Directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), Walt Disney Productions, 1942, Robles de Medina selects and intricately draws the pre-existing image to appease his interest in that narrow relief space between painting and sculpture. It is a method for contemplating translation, drawing as a mechanical process of reproduction, and considering Walter Benjamin’s “Work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” (1935), in which the author talks about film as a series of repeated images, as well as the resonance of Mickey Mouse, and ease with which we reproduce images.

Robles de Medina often compiles multiple sources to reach a more contemporary truth and create new imagery. In the exquisitely and patiently rendered drawing, Bacula of rice rats (Oryzomys) and voles (Microtus) on Thomas Eakins, sketch for the Crucifixion, the artist combines images of mice penises with Thomas Eakins sketch for crucifix. While the artist’s interest here is merely compositional, the analytical mind and eye may weave connections between the two images and their associated scientific, religious and historical contexts.

Lastly, the addtion of a final edition of Cult Value, points to the artist’s interest in the material and its many faces. Here, he is able to polish the graphite/plaster mix to achieve high gloss, something he could not, or did not think of doing, in prior editions of the work.